› added 7 months ago

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TIL that the army built a tunnel to drain Spirit Lake, to relieve water pressure against a natural dam created by the eruption of Mount St. Helens. If the tunnel fails - and it will - the dam will fail and a 40-foot wave will race down the valley, all the way to Kelso, WA, on the Columbia river.

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wokd7 TIL when insects shed Theo skin, they secrete compounds to protect themselves from infection as their new exoskeleton hardens. Researchers are investigating these compounds as a source of new antibiotics and immune stimulants.
xVndk TIL Dusty Hill from ZZ Top wanted to feel "normal" after their "Worldwide Texas Tour". So he cut his hair, got a job at an airport, went by the name of "Joe" and would go out on Friday nights with coworkers so he could feel "grounded".
0Lnv TIL there is an exposed bedrock near Hudson Bay, Canada that is 4.3 billion years old. It is the oldest known rock and was around when the earth was only 200 million years old with no atmosphere or oceans.
ADBww TIL: In the 1800s, Mrs Favell Lee Mortimer set out to write an ambitious guide to all the nations on Earth. She had never set foot outside Shropshire. She was horribly misinformed about virtually every topic she turned her attention to. And she was prejudiced against foreigners.
yVPbp TIL that the word ‘Neanderthal’ originally comes from ‘the Valley of Neander,’ a 17th century German Calvinist whose surname was Greek for, quite ironically, ‘New Man’ (νέος ανήρ).